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Chemical & Biological Engineering (CHBE) Sustainability Club

Turning Indicators into Reality: Methodology and Results on Assessing the Sustainability in Large Campuses. AASHE 2010 Conference Denver, October 10-12 th. Chemical & Biological Engineering (CHBE) Sustainability Club University of British Columbia – Vancouver

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Chemical & Biological Engineering (CHBE) Sustainability Club

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  1. Turning Indicators into Reality: Methodology and Results onAssessing the Sustainability in Large Campuses AASHE 2010 Conference Denver, October 10-12th Chemical & Biological Engineering (CHBE) Sustainability Club University of British Columbia – Vancouver Dora Ip, AlexandreVigneault, James Butler

  2. Who are we? • Since 2006, the CHBE Sustainability Club aims to serve as a model of sustainability for individual members and our community. • Since 2007, we have been looking at ways to assess sustainability in our department, • Assess our strengths and weaknesses • Target Actions: to yield the most results effectively

  3. Relevance of DepartmentLevelAssessment • Large university campuses are comprised of thousands of students & employees spread out over many different dept & admin units • CHBE represents less than 0.7% of UBC community • At UBC, a large portion of the administration is decentralized, with individual departments having autonomy over daily operations. • Campus wide assessments are a significant time & resource commitment • Campus wide results might not provide an accurate picture of the strengths and weaknesses for specific departments

  4. Why not wait for UBC to do it first? We are here!

  5. What we have proposed • 3 level indicators framework • 1st: Using surveys • Learn about habits of individuals, • Know their perceptions • Usually not studied in many campus frameworks • 2nd: Department level • Can be answered by an individual • Emphasis on “Yes/No” questions • 3rd: Campus level • Done at higher level (Sustainability Office) • Follow STARS

  6. Our Method • Frameworks for indicators have been reviewed: • ie – CSAF, STARS, GRI, UBC Inspiration & Aspiration, College Sustainability Green Card, Gross Happiness Index • Can we apply them to a department? Which ones are actually relevant? Others at UBC and beyond (no) Influence and or Interest (maybe) Control (yes)

  7. Rating system based on STARS, but with added “Community & Health” • Total 144 indicators; • 78 answered by surveys, separated by pop. categories (Undergrad, Staff, et al); • Department level: 66 indicators; ~40 “yes/no” indicators; • For the motivated: e.g. GHG Inventories, paper, electricity, water tracking; • Questions with informative answers that are not rated;

  8. Example: Research & Education: Curriculum Section • Department level questions (green): What are we doing? • Survey questions (blue): Are we doing it well?

  9. Example: Operation: Water Section

  10. Example:Operation: Transportation Section

  11. Example: Community & Health Section

  12. Conclusion • Measuring Sustainability at the Department is a great tool to learn, educate and create real changes • Comparing trends from then to now to evaluate what we can do to improve our department • We established a tool that can be utilized by all departments across the entire campus to analyze their sustainable efforts that requires modest resources

  13. Thank you! • Please contact us: • Tips, copy of surveys, excel tool • alexandrev@chbe.ubc.ca • doraip@interchange.ubc.ca • Thanks to our supporters • UBC Sustainability Office • Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering

  14. Example:Admin & Finance

  15. Lessons learned • Surveys: • Undergrad: paper great meet in classroom • Grad, staff & faculty, in person contact essential. Email, close to useless • Great education tools, some people might be angry • Lead to action: examples of changes

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